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The Firearms Thread

dangerousdon said:
On a side note, as some of you all know, back in 2016 my family went through a flood. Some of our rifles/pistols were in it. My brother grabbed my guns for me and gave them a good cleaning as they sat in water for a couple of days. Some of these are heirlooms. There were a couple if rifles that were the wife's grandpa's and a pistol that her dad gave me as well as my 10/22. Anyway because they had rust on them, when by brother cleaned them, some of the bluing came off.

Well, it's about time I start getting these wonderful firearms in back to the condition they deserve. I know there are at home bluing kits and products, but I have seen a lot of people do a lot of really bad stuff to some really fine weapons. This is not my desired result.

I am looking for recommendations of what I can do. In the end I will likely take them to a local gun smith and probably pay a fortune to have them re-blue the guns. But I was just wondering if there is anything else out there that I am unaware of that maybe the Cadre knows about. Thanks in advance!
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I’m in the same Boat I need to have my 422 - 22 cal pistol Re Blued. I don’t know how to do it Myself. I can’t find a gun smith in my area plus don’t know how much it would Cost me.


"Why is it I always get my best ideas while shaving?" ~ Albert Einstein
 
ED3054 said:
I’m in the same Boat I need to have my 422 - 22 cal pistol Re Blued. I don’t know how to do it Myself. I can’t find a gun smith in my area plus don’t know how much it would Cost me.


"Why is it I always get my best ideas while shaving?" ~ Albert Einstein
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Hopefully someone here has some knowledge on the subject.
 
My advice would be to build a home electrolysis tank to get all the rust off. It works quick on things that have very little rust on them like your firearms. I use it on stuff I find metal detecting, but it shouldn't harm anything. Some internet research should be done to see if electrolysis takes off the bluing. I know guys that want to reblue their gun parts use electrolysis, but they also reblue the whole gun part. I've used the cold bluing chemicals from Birchwood Casey to color metal parts for my historical stuff. The best bluing is done by heating the steel until water boils off it and then apply the chemical bluing. I use this process to turn my shiny steel tomahawks into something that looks like it has been around 200 years. The process works well. Cold bluing I would say is the last resort. I've used it to touch-up areas of blued steel, but you have to wipe it on, and wipe it off quickly several times to get the right color. Apply it and leave it on there and that's when bad things happen color wise. That's my

2 cent.jpg
 
Blade-meister said:
My advice would be to build a home electrolysis tank to get all the rust off. It works quick on things that have very little rust on them like your firearms. I use it on stuff I find metal detecting, but it shouldn't harm anything. Some internet research should be done to see if electrolysis takes off the bluing. I know guys that want to reblue their gun parts use electrolysis, but they also reblue the whole gun part. I've used the cold bluing chemicals from Birchwood Casey to color metal parts for my historical stuff. The best bluing is done by heating the steel until water boils off it and then apply the chemical bluing. I use this process to turn my shiny steel tomahawks into something that looks like it has been around 200 years. The process works well. Cold bluing I would say is the last resort. I've used it to touch-up areas of blued steel, but you have to wipe it on, and wipe it off quickly several times to get the right color. Apply it and leave it on there and that's when bad things happen color wise. That's my

View attachment 62441
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Good info. I really don't want to do the cold bluing. Any attempts of other people doing cold bluing...let's just say that it's not something I want on my wife's vintage Winchester Model 1894.
 
dangerousdon said:
it's not something I want on my wife's vintage Winchester Model 1894.
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Don't blame you there. Anything antique and has sentimental value should be dealt with right. I had a good friend (@ShawnF knows who Big Mike is) bring me his grandfather's antique meat cleaver to fix. He uses it on his homestead farm to dispatch chickens. It's been left on the ground and in the dirt etc.....I got looking it over and it's blacksmith forged with a through tang and peened-off end over the butt cap of the handle. I suspect this is mid 1800's at least. I told him if it were mine I'd stabilize and oil the handle, then clean it in a way to preserve the patina and it would be a wall hanger. There are plenty of antique cleavers for under $50 on Ebay that he could buy. I'll do a full on restore if he wants though. I say all that to make the point that old stuff should be preserved. A little rust is acceptable on a model 1894. Most of my old guns have minor surface rust in spots. I just keep it oiled. Maybe you should post pictures of the rust you are dealing with.
 
7332625a78d1ba9fabcb178638e59e78.jpg

P-38


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Blade-meister said:
Don't blame you there. Anything antique and has sentimental value should be dealt with right. I had a good friend (@ShawnF knows who Big Mike is) bring me his grandfather's antique meat cleaver to fix. He uses it on his homestead farm to dispatch chickens. It's been left on the ground and in the dirt etc.....I got looking it over and it's blacksmith forged with a through tang and peened-off end over the butt cap of the handle. I suspect this is mid 1800's at least. I told him if it were mine I'd stabilize and oil the handle, then clean it in a way to preserve the patina and it would be a wall hanger. There are plenty of antique cleavers for under $50 on Ebay that he could buy. I'll do a full on restore if he wants though. I say all that to make the point that old stuff should be preserved. A little rust is acceptable on a model 1894. Most of my old guns have minor surface rust in spots. I just keep it oiled. Maybe you should post pictures of the rust you are dealing with.
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Actually, the firearms I have are free of rust. When they went through the flood and sat in four and a half feet of water for a couple of days, by the time I got to them they began to rust. My brother was able to to a quick cleaning on all of them to eliminate and prevent the firearms from continuing to rust. Later I was able to do a complete disassembly and do a more detailed cleaning. What I have now are fully functional weapons that have spots of bare metal on blued weapons. I will likely have to send them to a gunsmith to have them completely stripped and then reblued, just didn't know if there were other options other than the cold bluing process.

All the weapons are fully functional and ready to go. The wife uses her Winchester 1894 for hunting. One of the others is a Marlin 336 from the 50s or so. I don't use this as much because ammo is hard to find for it and when I do find it, the ammo is insanely expensive. It shoots 35 Remington. And it was expensive before the ammo shortage.
 
d3d82be69ee5da721219109b0c9c307d.jpg

My first handgun. Browning Nomad.22. I was about 14 years old and it took all my lawn mowing money 49.95. Couldn’t believe my mom said ok! Dad had to sign for it. Still have it today. Lawrence holster came later. Btw….I’m 72 now.


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xring3 said:
d3d82be69ee5da721219109b0c9c307d.jpg

My first handgun. Browning Nomad.22. I was about 14 years old and it took all my lawn mowing money 49.95. Couldn’t believe my mom said ok! Dad had to sign for it. Still have it today. Lawrence holster came later. Btw….I’m 72 now.


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I love seeing these heirloom pistols and rifles that have been passed down or have been held their entire life by one owner.
 
Out of curiosity, anyone involved in the Civilian Marksmanship Program? Do you participate? Have you been lucky enough to purchase a rifle or 1911?
 
Is an NRA membership worth it? The wife wants to buy me a membership to a local gun range but they require an NRA membership.
 
The Monkey said:
Is an NRA membership worth it? The wife wants to buy me a membership to a local gun range but they require an NRA membership.
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I cant answer if it is worth it to you, but ... my local club requires NRA memberships also, but they also provide a discount NRA memberships through the Club, so it may be worth checking to see if your club offers that too.
 
Fenster said:
I cant answer if it is worth it to you, but ... my local club requires NRA memberships also, but they also provide a discount NRA memberships through the Club, so it may be worth checking to see if your club offers that too.
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Ill have to ask. It is hard to justify the yearly range fee plus the yearly NRA fee.
 
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